Maintenance
by cheesycheeselovr
Summary: It is rare, but sometimes Edward and Alphonse have some downtime. Moments where they're forced to slow down and just be, this is one of them. Slight EdXWin


Maintenance.

It was a pain, Ed thought, how much work had to be put into just _being._ Everything from showering to going outside had be followed by maintenance after awhile. Even the automail, no, scratch that, _especially_ the automail. That had to be oiled, towel dried, and left out in the open for an hour at least once a week or he would get an earful from Al and Winry.

But, on the upside, these little maintenance sessions he had to endure were not endured alone. Alphonse had to work to make sure that his own metallic body was in good condition, lest he become the tin man and stay rusted in one place forever.

It was during one of these long drawn out maintenance get togethers that our heroes found themselves. Ed was currently trying to lift his foot to his face to inspect a toe, and Al was polishing his detached chest plate to make it gleam and shine.

"Say, Ed?"

"Yeah?" The voice was distracted as golden eyes latched onto the problematic stone that had decided to lodge itself into his automail. Now he just had to get it out... "Pass me the tweezers, will you?"

Alphonse would have rolled his eyes if he had them, as it was he just reached to their little tool bag and dug out the needed contraption. The younger boy watched as his brother tried in vain to get a good angle on the appendage, but it was just too far and it was difficult to have this type of flexibility with the heavy limbs. "Here, brother let me do it."

With light grumbles, Edward handed the instrument over and stretched out his leg so that Al could do his work. The young state alchemist leaned back on his elbows while he waited, tilting his head as curiosity burned inside his active mind. "What was it you wanted?"

Al grinned internally, knowing it was just a matter of time before Ed's curiosity ate away at him enough to ask what he wanted. But he was a patient young man, and a little more waiting would work in his favor. "It was nothing, just something stupid."

Ed frowned, falling right into the carefully laid trap hook line and sinker, "Hang on a second, you brought up a question, I have a right to at least know what it was about. Now spill."

"Well..." Al drug it out a second more before putting his cards down. "See, Winry invited us to this wedding, and I thought maybe-"

"You want to go to a wedding?" Ed interrupted.

"I thought it would be nice." Al said innocently. Never mind the fact it would be an excuse to get the two love birds into a romantic setting together. No, of course that wasn't his plan at all.

But if it worked...

Ed squinted, tilting his head to study the stoic figure of his little brother. In his minds eye he could see the real Alphonse sitting there, golden eyes glimmering with mischief as he fought not to smile. "What's you're game here, Al?"

"I'm not playing any game." Al said again, feigning ignorance as he finally managed to pluck out the pesky rock from between the automail plates. He set it aside on a table so it wouldn't be a problem later before returning to his polishing again. "I just thought that I would like to go, and you could use a break, and Winry said-"

"Oh, so it's about Winry is it?" Ed asked, sharp mind finding the root of the problem with ease. "You're a sneaky sonuva gun aren't you?"

"I really don't know what you're talking about."

"Uh huh. Sure you don't." Ed rolled his eyes, reaching out to grab the oil can so he could finish his maintenance. His mind couldn't help but think about going to this wedding, though. It would probably be really boring, and he most likely wouldn't know a lot of people there. But on the other hand it would be nice to hang out with Winry...

"When was this thing, again?"

Alphonse would have smiled in victory, but he kept his emotions from leaking into his surprisingly expressive armor. "In a few weeks."

Ed gave a pause, as if he hadn't already decided to go, then nodded. "Alright fine. But you'll owe me. Big time."

"Whatever you say, brother."

 **A/N: I just like the thought of the two boys having some time to just...relax. So I figure they have to have some time to take care of their various parts, right? They probably do some talking then! Yay!**

 **Sorry, this is just the strangeness that happens when I'm not sleeping enough. Oh well.**


End file.
